Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday March 10 2020, @09:01AM   Printer-friendly
from the tiny-homes dept.

Downsizing the McMansion: Study gauges a sustainable size for future homes:

What might homes of the future look like if countries were really committed to meeting global calls for sustainability, such as the recommendations advanced by the Paris Agreement and the U.N.'s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development?

Much wider adoption of smart design features and renewable energy for low- to zero-carbon homes is one place to start -- the U.N. estimates households consume 29% of global energy and consequently contribute to 21% of resultant CO2 emissions, which will only rise as global population increases.

However, a new scholarly paper authored at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) assesses another big factor in the needed transformation of our living spaces toward sustainability -- the size of our homes.

The paper published in the journal Housing, Theory & Society makes the case for transitioning away from the large, single-family homes that typify suburban sprawl, offering new conceptions for what constitutes a more sustainable and sufficient average home size in high-income countries going forward.

The article surveys more than 75 years of housing history and provides estimates for the optimal spatial dimensions that would align with an "environmentally tenable and globally equitable amount of per-person living area" today. It also spotlights five emerging cases of housing innovation around the world that could serve as models for effectively adopting more space-efficient homes of the future.

"There is no question that if we are serious about embracing our expressed commitments to sustainability, we will in the future need to live more densely and wisely," said Maurie Cohen, the paper's author and professor at NJIT's Department of Humanities. "This will require a complete reversal in our understanding of what it means to enjoy a 'good life' and we will need to start with the centerpiece of the 'American Dream,' namely the location and scale of our homes.

"The notion of 'bigger is better' will need to be supplanted by the question of 'how much is enough?' Fortunately, we are beginning to see examples of this process unfolding in some countries around the world, including the United States."

Maurie J. Cohen. New Conceptions of Sufficient Home Size in High-Income Countries: Are We Approaching a Sustainable Consumption Transition? Housing, Theory and Society, 2020; 1 DOI: 10.1080/14036096.2020.1722218


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2020, @01:22PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2020, @01:22PM (#969026)

    You miss the key factor in all of this, that the internet has only exasperated by about a million orders of magnitude.

    Complaining and trying to tear stuff down is easy, satisfying, and socially promoted. Trying to build stuff up is *extremely* difficult, challenging (though ultimately far more satisfying), and -contrary to what I think most would imagine- generally discouraged by society. What I mean on that last point is, for instance, what happens if you decide to give it a go at starting a business. I will never forget my mother in law's reaction on learning that I'd made a few thousand in my first 'start up', "You should take that out [of your business account] and buy yourself something nice." Implicitly suggesting I'd lose it all. For some context, I grew up dirt poor - as did my wife, so a few thousand bucks with no direct obligation (such as rent) was a *lot* of money for us.

    Anyhow, I think that mentality is extremely common, especially (and counter productively) among the poor and lower educated. Those who can never even imagine success will obviously turn that pessimism into quite the self-fulfilling prophecy. So then they get back to complaining and trying to tear stuff down. At scale, enter an increasingly large chunk of society that thinks socialism is the answer. This time it'll be different, really!

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +3  
       Insightful=1, Interesting=2, Total=3
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday March 10 2020, @03:17PM (5 children)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Tuesday March 10 2020, @03:17PM (#969079) Journal

    In rapacious capitalist societies such as the US, the lack of financial discipline is augmented by the constant screaming exhorting and coercing everyone to spend. Buy your way out of a problem (and don't notice that we manufactured the problem for you). How could you not buy what your child needs to get ahead? How could you, you rotten excuse of a parent?!? Your home needs maintenance, lots of it, or it won't meet city ordinances or HoA regulations. You can use your money to care for it in the prescribed and approved manners, or you can lose the money paying the fines we're going to levy. Your choice, ha ha!

    Don't even think of going to the dentist, not in Fee For Service Land. No telling how many cavities the dentist will find that aren't real. Same with the doc. They will load you down with a bunch of drug prescriptions, if you in any way encourage them, like by complaining of aches and pains that aren't really all that bad.

    The car is a huge money pit. But in the US, the way cities are designed, it's nigh impossible to live without a car. Some places, yes, you can do without. Not in sprawling suburbia though. No public transportation of any sort, and everything is so spread out that walking will take much too long. And biking? Without bike lanes? Worse, with car fanatics who believe that bikes shouldn't be allowed on the roads? Once when he was around 10, my brother was deliberately run off the street by some crazy old woman driver who thought just that. The old girl was probably going senile. She should have been charged with, what's the crime? Reckless endangerment? Attempted vehicular homicide? And should have had her license pulled. Elderly drivers are the worst scourges of everyone trying to get places on foot or bicycle. Very dangerous, the way they can accidentally swerve out of their lanes without realizing it, especially on corners. And they were children and teens in the era when car mania was at its peak, and we had drive-in everything. Likely they want a return to those days.

    Never mind Keeping Up With The Joneses. Just keeping your head above water is a challenge.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2020, @04:55PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2020, @04:55PM (#969164)

      If you want to live in an overcrowded city with "excellent" public transportation, you are welcome to move to NYC. You could of course probably not afford the "good" parts, so you'd have to live in the not-so-good part. But hey, with no space for personal cars and being surrounded by people too poor to afford one, transportation options will be tailor made to fit your expressed preference.

      The truth is, for pervasive public transportation, you need to design entire cities around it and tax people heavily to pay for it: public transportation is very expensive. (It only seems like a deal when you think somebody else is paying for it.) Given that, does public transportation serve a society or does a society serve public transportation? Given a choice (and we are all given a choice in that we move to a region we choose), people in America have overwhelmingly shown that they prioritize other things over public transportation. ALMOST EVERY TIME. For those who want it, you are free to move to the city. The public transportation people are always saying how much better the city is already, right? Oh that's right, they aren't content with letting people live where/as they wish; their suburb must be turned into a city. Any other possibility is just WRONG.

      • (Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday March 10 2020, @08:55PM

        by driverless (4770) on Tuesday March 10 2020, @08:55PM (#969287)

        That's the US model for public transportation. It works well in other countries. And then you get flow-on effects where, if a place has fast, efficient, cheap public transport, everyone uses it and there are fewer cars clogging up the streets.

      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday March 11 2020, @12:22AM

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday March 11 2020, @12:22AM (#969365) Journal

        Even so, you can live quite well without a car. There are foldable bikes that pop into a bag. Ride to the subway/bus/whatever, sit down, on the other side ride to work and throw the thing under your desk. Mostly, though, in NYC you can get where you need to go faster and cheaper on a bike, without public transportation at all.

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday March 10 2020, @08:52PM

      by driverless (4770) on Tuesday March 10 2020, @08:52PM (#969285)

      Was just talking about this with friends yesterday, all of the drunken bums I knew when I was a student now own their own homes after working hard and saving every penny. They're financially secure. However, we all knew people who spent money as soon as it came in, and will never own their own home. I have no idea what they're going to do when they retire and the massive Ponzi scheme that is the pension has run out of steam. Wage increase? Great, let's spend it! Christmas bonus? Great, we'll book a cruise! Small inheritance? Fiji, here we come! It's almost inconceivable how these people persist in barely-gets-by homeostatis, no matter how much more money comes in they'll just increase their spending until they're back to zero again.

      God, I'm an old fart and I'm not even old yet. You young'uns have no appreciation of the value of money...

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday March 11 2020, @12:44AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 11 2020, @12:44AM (#969371) Journal
      And yet, to avoid this capitalist menace, all you have to do is ignore it.